Acclaimed author Win Blevins’ Stone Song won the Spur Award and the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award.

For over thirty years, from the time of Lewis and Clark into the 1840s, the mountain men explored the Great American West. As trappers in a hostile, trackless land, their exploits opened the gates of the mountains for the wagon trains of pioneers who followed them.

In Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Win Blevins presents a poetic tribute to these dauntless “first Westerners” and their incredible adventures. The stories included are:

John Colter, who, in 1808, naked and without weapons or food, escaped captivity by the Blackfeet and ran and walked 250 miles to Fort Lisa at the mouth of the Yellowstone River;

Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly in 1823, left for dead by his trapper companions, and crawled 300 miles to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri;

Kit Carson, who ran away from home at age seventeen, became a legendary mountain man in his twenties and served as scout and guide for John C. Fremont’s westward explorations of the 1840s;

Jedediah Smith, a tall, gaunt, Bible-reading New Yorker whose trapping expeditions ranged from the Rockies to California and who was killed by Comanches on the Cimarron in 1831.

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Quotes & Awards

“Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West’s very best.”

Tony Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author

“[Has] the drama and suspense of a novel…A lyrically written celebration of the lifestyle and still-astonishing deeds of the mountain men.”

Los Angeles Times

“For the lover of the early West, it is good entertainment…with lots of color, suspense, and excitement.”

Listener Opinions

" Fun easy reading history of the mountain man era done as a series of stories/events "

Liz (Consumed by Books) | 10/30/2013

" I did not actually finish this book. Even after a good deal of effort, I could not really get into. Such is life at times. "

Sharon Zink | 9/23/2013

" I loved this non-fiction account of the "mountain men" of the West during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. "

Jack | 8/9/2013

" A good book on the contribution of mountain men in opening and settling the west. However the book fails when the author attempts of recreate the manner and language of the mountain men. He should stick to that which he has direct knowledge of. "

Scott Bischke | 3/26/2013

" Read this long ago and kept it as a reference to the mountain men of the old west, the great historical love of my father. "

Keith Slade | 1/24/2013

" Good account of the mountain men during the heyday of the fur trade in the American West. "

Joshua Gamradt | 11/15/2012

" I read this book while deer hunting. It was a great way to pass the time and be in nature at the same time. It is not a difficult read, but it is a good book of the history of the west. "

Gary | 7/27/2012

" Another awesome study of the men of the mountains. Honest and heartbreaking. A beautifully written description combining history and facts. One of my favorite mountain men books. "

Linda | 7/15/2012

" I REALLY loved this book about Indian history and the early mountain men. "

Other Titles by Win Blevins:

About the Author

Win Blevins is the author of a dozen novels, several volumes of informal history, and Dictionary of the American West. Among his many awards, his novel Stone Song won the Spur Award and a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for Best Fiction, while So Wild a Dream won the Spur Award for Best Novel of the West. In 2003, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers named him Writer of the Year.

About the Narrator

Henry Strozier has appeared in numerous films, including Contact, You Don’t Know Jack, Thirteen Days, and Sex in the City. Also a voice-over artist, he has worked extensively in video games and audiobook narration.

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